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Springbrook Pinnacle - Micro Adventure

What do you do when you have a free Sunday. Kerrie to the rescue to come up with a micro adventure. After a bit of looking around Kerrie suggested Springbrook Warrie Circuit at Tallanbana Picnic area. What's special about that I wondered, but it was the usual walk with a twist. The plan was a return trip to Springbrook Pinnacle. Anything different and an excuse to go bush sounded great to me and Tash was coming along as well.

The plan was to walk just under 5km along the Warrie Circuit, then head out cross-country following a ridge (marked by pink tape) to the Pinnacle.

When we arrived at the Tallanbana car park it started raining, but it didn't tamper our spirits. Kerrie was starting to wonder whether it was too wet to get to the top of the Pinnacle. But I was determined and would see how it looked when we got there.

Coming to think of it, the last time we were here it was also raining heavily. But I guess this is why we come here, to see the "Rainforest" and you can't have the forest without the rain.

Below, where Tash's finger points, is where we were we planning to leave the graded track system and head north along the ridge to the Pinnacle.

Along the way, the rock formations were awesome and dwarfed everything around them.

The waterfalls were flowing strong with the recent rains and painted a haunting picture in the mist.

Eventually, the rain was starting to ease off and the going was nice and easy on the steady downward slope. I didn't mention to Tash that we have to go back the same way and (in this case) everything that goes down must go up.

We came across a cool looking tree that seemed to spiral all the way up.

And some awesome looking fungi.

Including this giant of a fungus.

Soon the clouds parted and the sun started to come out and we were confident to get up the Pinnacle without slipping off.

But with the wet weather we had over the last few months, come a large number of leeches. The below photo of Tash was taken shortly before she discovered several hanger oners. For some reason, her smile was replaced by a bit of cursing. But only for a short time.

After 1 hour and 20 minutes following the Warrie circuit, we came to the bend in the path (marked by some magnificent tall trees) where we headed down (then mainly up) the ridge along a fairly visible track. The fluorescent tape also provided clear directions. Not that you could have gone much wrong as you would have fallen off the side of the ridge if you took a wrong turn.

At some stages, the path was covered by patches of fern, which were easily navigated.

After another 40 minutes walking, we arrived at the Pinnacle and were pleasantly surprised that everything here was dry. But we noticed that the wind had picked up considerably.

We started our way up and after a bit of scrambling realised that we may not slip because of wet rock but get blown off instead. The wind was howling around our ears now.

Kerrie and Tash proved to be the sensible ones again and decided that it was a bit too windy to head up the Pinnacle, which included some pretty narrow ledges with big drop offs.

I managed to get up without being blown off and was rewarded with the most spectacular 360-degree views, reaching from the Gold Coast to the hinterland.

After a lunch break and some forest surfing, we headed back towards the circuit walk and back to the car.

With the sun now fully out, the way back provided a completely new perspective of the rainforest and waterfalls.

Springbrook Pinnacle from the circuit.

When we got back home I noticed blood on our tiles only to realise that leeches had decided to not only go for Tash but also have a bit of a bite out of me.

Length of walk 15km return approx.Time 5 hours, including lunch and some other breaksBest Time to do Any time of year after a small amount of rain, but not rain on the day. Pinnacle rocks would be too slippery.